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The Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol, which follows the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is one of the most important international legal instruments to combat climate change. It is the first international agreement that contains the commitments of industrialized countries to reduce the emissions of some greenhouse gases, responsible for global warming. It was adopted in Kyoto, Japan on December 11, 1997 and entered into force on February 16, 2005.

The Kyoto Protocol concerns the emissions of six greenhouse gases:

  • carbon dioxide (CO2);
  • methane (CH4);
  • nitrous oxide (N2O);
  • hydrofluorocarbons (HFC);
  • perfluorocarbons (PFC);
  • sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

The main feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it establishes binding and quantified targets for the limitation and reduction of greenhouse gases in the ratifying countries (the Parties), or rather the 37 industrialized countries and the European Community. The industrialized countries (listed in Annex I of the UNFCCC), recognized as being responsible for the levels of greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere, undertook to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, in the period 2008-2012, by at least 5% compared to 1990 levels.

The Kyoto Protocol requires countries to achieve their reduction targets primarily through national measures. However, the protocol allows to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through market-based mechanisms, the so-called "Flexible Mechanisms". These are:

International Emission Trading (ET): allows the exchange of emission credits between industrialized Countries and economies in transition; a Country that has achieved a decrease in its greenhouse gas emissions higher than its target can thus transfer (using ET) these "credits" to a Country that, on the contrary, has not been able to meet its reduction commitments greenhouse gas emissions;

  • Clean Development Mechanism-CDM: allows industrialized and economies in transition Countries to carry out projects in developing Countries, which produce environmental benefits in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the economic and social development of guests Countries and, at the same time, generate emission reduction credits (CER) for the Countries promoting the interventions;
  • Joint Implementation-JI: it allows industrialized and economies in transition Countries to carry out projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in another Country of the same group and to use the resulting credits (ERU), jointly with the host country.